Help identify

[MDC151521]

Please help identify the stuff growing in my tank.

10 week old bow-front.

Went thru diatom bloom. And white bacteria that clouded the water.

 

[MDC151521]

Emerald crabs go to town on the red cyano bacteria, I am assuming that is what it is.
The rock is dry rock. The sand is carib sea live sand.

 

[sfin52]

Welcome to reef2reef. Looks like a little bit of film algea and Cyanobacteria. New tank uglies.

 

[MDC151521]

Thank you for the welcome and the reply. Will this all clear up on its own with regular water changes or do i need to do something about the cyano bacteria?

 

[sfin52]

You may or may not. It depends on nutrients and light available. Some use Film algea is usually kept in check by my snails.

Can you give us tank info. Are you running a skimmer and how is the flow.

 

[MDC151521]

72 gallon bow front. Fluval 406 canister filter with skimmer which is working properly. 1 powerhead. Great circulation in whole tank.
pH-8.3 in afternoon
Salt-1.026
Calcium-420
Phospate-<.25 ppm
Nitrite-0
Nitrate-20ppm
-light set up is as follows
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01FVJMFPC/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o06_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1
Blue actinic lights on at 5:30 a.m.
Blue and white at 10:00a.m
White off at 8:00 p.m.
Blue off at 11:00 p.m.
4 hermit crabs
4 emerald crabs
2 cerith snails
4 peppermint shrimp
1 large turbo snail
1 extra large turbo snail
1 coralline covered nassarius snail
0 fish at this time (kind of waiting for the many cycles to finish)
I feed a few pellets once a day which the shrimp seem to take care of in short order. Is this too often for just a few pellets of food?

Anything else you need to know

 

[jsker]

@sfin52 hit it right on the head. Your tank is cycling and let the process finish. In regards to the cyano I would say running your light on that long of a cycle is your issue with cyano. I would suggest a 12 hr lighting period with running you white no more than 8 hr. If the cyano persists then cut back on the whites and hour till it disappears

 

[MDC151521]

Thanks for the reasurrance and info.
I didn't think blue actinic light affected things like algae and bacteria. I will definately reduce the time periods and see how it goes. Guess I should add I do use RO/DI water which should be a given.

 

[laverda]

72 gallon bow front. Fluval 406 canister filter with skimmer which is working properly. 1 powerhead. Great circulation in whole tank.
pH-8.3 in afternoon
Salt-1.026
Calcium-420
Phospate-<.25 ppm
Nitrite-0
Nitrate-20ppm

I agree with giving it time. I would watch your nitrate and po4 levels. Canister filters really are not suitable for reef Systems unless cleaned at least weekly. Canister filters are great at removing stuff from the water column, however it is still in your system and will break down to nitrate and po4.

 

[MDC151521]

Thank you I was unaware that canister filters were not suited for reef tanks. If I got a phosban reactor would that help my situation with the canister filter until I can upgrade?

 

[sfin52]

You might want to up the flow. I run a 406 canister with three powerheads.

I clean the filter 2*month. I’m running a mostly softy tank. I have one hammer, frogspawn and torch loads of shrooms, 3 devils hand, a large finger leather, blasto and gsp. No problems so far but I’m really ocd on filter cleaning.

 

[MDC151521]

Awesome info. I was scheduled for 1*/month cleaning but will switch to 2*. Thinking I will be going soft also. Good to know about your set up. How many gallon tank you have?

 

[sfin52]

Mine is 75 gallon

 

[MDC151521]

Nice looking tank. Love the color of the your coralline algae on the back wall. Can't wait to get to the point that I'm scrapping that off on a daily basis.

 

[sfin52]

Thanks. I have limpets eating it. I have a green coraline replacing it that limpets arnt eating

 

[laverda]

Thank you I was unaware that canister filters were not suited for reef tanks. If I got a phosban reactor would that help my situation with the canister filter until I can upgrade?

You can put your phosphate media in your canister filter.